Service Members Opportunity Colleges

Gadsden State has been designated as an institutional member of Service members Opportunity Colleges (SOC), a group of over 400 colleges and universities providing voluntary post-secondary education to members of the United States military throughout the world. As a SOC member, GSCC is committed to making it as easy as possible for members of the armed forces to avail themselves of the College's instructional services through liberal policies and expedited procedures with respect to the transfer of relevant course credits, the awarding of credit for appropriate military training and experience, and the provision of flexible academic residency requirements. In addition to its SOC membership, GSCC is one of only fifty or so institutions providing both occupational programs and flexible Service members Opportunity Colleges Associate Degree (SOCAD) programs on more than 200 Army installations worldwide. These programs lead to associate degrees, and most of them correspond to enlisted and warrant-officer job specialties. Through prior agreement, students in SOCAD programs have residency credit limited to one-fourth of the total degree requirements taken at any one time;

are awarded credit for experience in their military occupational specialty and in service schools, as appropriate to their program;

are awarded credit for non-traditional learning based on results of national tests, such as CLEP, and SST's, as appropriate to their program;

have a SOCAD Student Agreement completed as their official evaluation

and stating their remaining degree requirements, thereby eliminating the need for reevaluation of their previous credit; and are guaranteed that courses listed in transferability charts in the SOCAD Handbook will be accepted for meeting degree requirements within each appropriate curriculum area.

For more information about SOC and SOCAD, please call (256) 549-8210, email us at admissions@gadsdenstate.edu or visit the Records Office in the One Stop Center, East Broad Campus.